A spectacular batting collapse by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the third IPL match of the competition gave an easy win to Royal Challengers Bangalore, who won by 10 runs. Heroic efforts by Jonny Bairstow came to naught.
Jonny Bairstow was in devastating form as he scored 61 in just 43 balls with his knock including six fours and two sixes. He was clean bowled by Yuzvendra Chahal when the Sunrisers Hyderabad’s total was 121-2. His departure brought a mini-collapse for the SRH as Chahal sent Vijay Shankar with the second consecutive delivery. Chahal was unlucky to not complete his hat-trick even he emerged as the best bowler for the RCB with a figure of 3-18.
Earlier batting first, Royal Challengers Bangalore made 163-5 in their quota of 20 overs. Skipper Virat Kohli failed to shine with the bat as he was out for just 14. AB de Villiers made 51 but the team’s top-scorer was the debutant Devdutt Padikkal, who made 56.
Bad fortune continued to hit Sunrisers as two of their batsmen namely Rashid Khan and Abhishek Sharma were involved in a nasty collision while trying to steal second run in the 17th over. This led to Sharma being run out at a crucial stage of the game. This soon turned into a monster collapse David Warner’s team 121-3 to 143-9 within a span of 18 deliveries. They were eventually bowled out for 153 in 19.4 overs.
Reacting to his team’s win, Kohli said, “It’s amazing to be honest. Last night we were only the other side of the result, 6-nil. Nice to be 1-nil. We kept our composure and Yuzi comes in and completely changes the game for us. Not many spinners got much out of the pitch, but tonight he showed that you can turn it if you have it in your wrists. He turned the game. To be honest, we started really well. Devdutt was really good on debut, Finchy as well. But when you lose two in two, you have to consolidate. If not for two in two, you were looking at maybe 10-20 runs more. In the past if we had 43 off 5, you’d see the shoulders dropping but the guys kept believing, kept attacking. Someone like Washy not bowling enough and a part-timer doing it are good signs.”
Warner said, “Yeah look, can’t remember I was out like that. It was a bizzare game for us. Obviously RCB played well here to get across the line. A lot of courage for Mitch to walk out. Doesn’t look great, he can’t put any weight on his leg. We always knew that they had to get some bowlers out at the end. Probably that last over of Chahal was the turning point there. We’ve obviously go back to the drawing board. We can’t fix what happened tonight. Everyone knows that to play Chahal out at that point, it is a talking point, but the guys don’t need reminding.”
Chahal was adjudged Man Of The Match for his splendid bowling.